Life is a lazy river - no matter where you are. Movies, musicals, mysteries, pop culture, and lots of other great stuff.

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

The Hunt for Bike Repair

I got a quick, late start. Finished The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, then wrote in my journal and moved on to breakfast. Did a Good Eats episode as I ate. Winter greens have become a lot more popular since Alton made an episode around them in the mid-2000's. People have since discovered their many vitamins and minerals...and that as Alton says here, if you cook them properly, they can be quite delicious. The mustard green casserole sounds especially tasty.

Hurried out around 1 to do a few errands. My first stop was the Oaklyn Library, mainly to return the Star Wars reference book I took out last week. There was nothing going on over there whatsoever, other than one guy riffling through the racks and one or two people on computers. I looked over the DVDs and shelved board books until the librarian said they were getting ready to close at 2.

I didn't want to hike all the way over to Haddonfield to have my bike checked out, so I headed to that little auto shop in Audubon. There was someone there who was able to look at my wheels. Apparently, the valves on the inner tubes shouldn't have been bending over. He filled them both with air, fixed the flat one, and I was on my way...

For five minutes, until I felt it going flat again. Arrrgh! I just ended up walking to WaWa for a turkey hoagie. Despite the gray cloud cover, it was warm enough for me to eat my lunch at the wooden benches on West Clinton Avenue. Watched the kids laugh and chase each other as they headed home from school.

Left the bike at Richard's and Willa's when I got in, then went upstairs. I did manage to get some writing in. Leia helps the girls clean the cabin from top to bottom. Rey thinks she hears voices while she's sweeping the porch, but she finally decides it's the wind. Leia gets the girls settled down with marshmallows and lots of blankets to combat the chill before they start telling their spooky tales.

Made turkey hot dogs and braised celery for dinner while doing a two part episode from the fourth season of Get Smart. The title monarch of "The King Lives?" returns in "To Sire, With Love." Max has to hide him and the royal scepter from his mortal enemy Rupert of Rathskiller (James Caan). When Rupert gets wind of the plot, he first sends a tarantula to kill them all, then kidnaps the king. Meanwhile, 99 keeps mixing the king and Max, and her husband is getting very jealous.

Finished the night with the far less florid The Hunt for Red October. CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) finds himself in the midst of serious Cold War drama when a sub carrying an experimental nuclear device is found heading for the US, with a crew that wants to defect. Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) is determined to get it back by any means...including defecting himself...

I remember seeing this movie when it debuted on cable with my dad. I liked it then, and though the Cold War politics haven't dated well, I still like it. Connery and Baldwin play well off each other in this tight, well-plotted action tale.

Oh, and Richard was able to fix my bike. The "new" inner tube I had was defective. He swiped a good one off another bike. Good. I never did get to doing the laundry today. It MUST be done tomorrow after work.